Just discovered a fantastic artist this afternoon (anyone who hangs horses* or donkeys from the ceiling has my vote.) His name is Stephen Wilks and he’s having a solo show at the Galerie Kai Hilgemann in Berlin (half way between Check Point Charlie and Potsdamer Platz).

Rat, 2006

The show features drawings, masks and oversized animal sculptures including a stuffed white rat (10 meters by 3 meters) having a nap on a (real) Mini Cooper.

The title of the exhibition, No Animal Shall Walk on 2 Legs, refers to George Orwell’s 1945 novel Animal Farm. In this satirical allegory of the Stalin era, Orwell imagines an uprising of the animals against farmer Jones. The society the animals create is based on equality, their cooperative system has neither hierachies nor dominance. However the pigs very quickly become the new dictators, and the new laws they install revolve around concepts such as “All Animal Are Equal. But Some Are More Equal than Others”.

Commandments and Napoleon, 2006

Wilks has been working on the Animal Farm for two years, creating sculptures, masks, drawings, films and performances in several countries. The performances are often street-parades where humans carry the animals figures, the pigs laying on sofas and beds. One of these animal parades took place in the streets of Berlin in December.

No Animal Shall Walk on 2 Legs runs through January 28, 2007, at the Galerie Kai Hilgemann in Berlin.
My images.